24 Unbelievable Luxuries Of Being Super, Mega, Wildly Rich That The Rest Of Us Can't Even Begin To Wrap Our Heads Around
Reddit user u/infinitemirrorss asked the community to share some things that rich/ultra-rich people do that the average person doesn't even consider. As you can imagine, the thread quickly filled with luxuries most of us could only dream of. Here's what people shared:
1."Have assistants to do things we wouldn't dream of doing. I know a rich person who hired a personal assistant to find land to purchase: 'Here are the criteria: forested land by the sea, cliffs, quiet area, but with cell reception, and make sure it isn't an area with lots of boat traffic so I can take my bath while looking out at sea.'"
2."I do a lot of work for a ridiculously wealthy couple. One thing I saw that comes to mind is having a helicopter drop them off at the end of their driveway and having their car and driver waiting to take them from the end of the gravel driveway to the house. It's probably a 35-second walk. It took them longer to get into the car than it would for an ordinary person to walk it."
3."Having separate sets of clothing in each house so they don't have to take more than carry-on luggage when traveling."
"I've heard of this, but for expensive designer bags, too. A client returned to buy another $8,000 bag in the same size and color. When a sales clerk asked if it was for gifting since she had the bag already, the client replied, 'No. This will be sent to my other home.'"
4."I've been a chef for 20 years. I've dealt with this a bit. They can buy out a restaurant for several days if they want to drop in during their vacation with no wait times. We charged $50,000 per meal service they wanted to buy out. It made us $300,000 over three days. They never showed up but went to our sister restaurant across the river. In Miami, bottle service is unreal. We know this already, but you have no idea. Aside from paying $2,000 for a bottle of Grey Goose with mixers, they will spend several thousand on Ace of Spades or Crystal and just throw $200,000 on the black card for one night of drinking. This extends to champagne, not just for drinking, but for the act of spraying on each other and the scantily-clad girls pretending to like them for a 25% guaranteed tip."
"This includes a special champagne menu with an assortment of 'spray packages.' You can buy one bottle of Dom Perignon to drink and spray around for $1,000, or you can order entire cases of Crystal JUST TO SPRAY ON EACH OTHER FOR $50,000 A CASE. I've seen poolside bungalows order several cases for pool parties."
5."I live near Scottsdale, where there are many wealthy people. They constantly remodel their vacation homes, so there's always great stuff. I bought a brand-new Viking refrigerator from Craigslist. It was still wrapped. The homeowners decided they wanted a double refrigerator instead. They've owned the home for two years and still haven't stayed a night there. The refrigerator retails for $18,000. I got it for $1,500."
6."I don't know if this is well-known, but most customer service lines have a special line for rich people/celebrities. Just about every customer service line I have ever worked for has a whole 'VIP' department. I guarantee you, they don't get the slightest pushback. The company will kill itself to make them happy. Also, they get better service. When I worked at DirecTV, one of the VIPs called me. They had 27 TVs. I'm talking outside TVs, TVs in every bathroom, shower TVs, etc. They had literally every channel, including PPV. DirecTV was pretty much paying them to have the service."
7."I know a rich guy who was telling me about the trouble he had with his jeweler. The guy had a personal jeweler to make him expensive watches. He also complained about how he bought a new car on a whim but forgot his four-car garage was full of new cars. He lives in a mansion in north Miami. He also redecorates his house constantly. He has so much money, he does whatever he wants all the time, like spending $10,000 on hotel rooms."
8."Paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for golf course memberships. I photograph luxury homes in my state's most exclusive golf course neighborhoods. I know of one neighborhood where membership runs $400k+ and there's a waitlist of people wanting to join."
"In Naples, FL there's a club that has a waitlist. It costs $30,000 to get on the waitlist, but there is no guarantee you'll be selected that year. Every year, you have to pony up another $30k to stay on the list."
9."I have a client who is so wealthy, she is functionally invisible. No online presence, un-Googleable. The name she uses isn't even her legal name, but I have no idea what her real name is because she has a family office (private wealth management) that handles her money, so checks from her come from that group. What I love is that she does nothing. Every detail of her life is done by magic. The car is always immaculate. The dogs are walked, fed, and taken to the vet. Once a week, a beauty staff shows up to wax and manicure her. She legitimately has no idea how her clothes are always clean and immaculately pressed, her house is perfect, the fridge is always stocked, there are meals on the table twice a day, bills are paid, the taxes are done, investments are invested, the garden weeded, etc. She knows she has staff, and they do it all, but she has no idea what 'all' is or how they do it."
"She wanted to try paddle boarding, and an hour later, a top-of-the-line paddle board and accessories were unpacked and ready to go in her car. She just dials a phone number, says what she wants, and immediately gets it. She has a concierge on staff. That's what the ultra-rich do. Nothing."
10."There's a type of mega yacht that follows the main yacht, and it just carries toys."
"It's called a support yacht. Their purpose is to follow the main yacht while carrying all the toys. Things like jet skis, speed boats, kayaks, personal submarines, electric foilboards, etc."
11."Buying a home for their college-age children. Then, they sell the house when their kid graduates. Sometimes, this sale pays for college."
"I was a realtor for this. They would also have rent-paying roommates during their college years. They'd sell the house and pay back all the housing and some of the tuition costs."
"The folks I knew in college whose parents bought a place for them to stay would then just rent it out after they graduated. They'd start letting their parents' money make them more money ASAP."
12."I have several rich friends my age (50s) who don't work. Their biggest perk is attending every concert and show and buying front row. Not just in our area, but if their favorite band is playing across the country, they fly (with their kids) there and spend the weekend."
13."There are several single-family owned Montessori schools. Like, a family office put together an entire mini school just for their kids and their friends' kids. It became a thing to do when the pandemic hit. Some are 100% mobile, like teaching on the jet/all over the world."
14."Flying to another country on a private jet just to eat dinner."
15."Years ago, I read an article about someone whose business was keeping ultra-rich people's cars ready to go. If you have a Ferrari in multiple cities, they'd keep it fueled up, get the oil changed, drive it around the block once a week or so, and have it waiting at the airport when the owner flies into town."
"When I was a car mechanic, our shop would do this type of work for the richest clients. I remember doing an $800 oil change on a Maserati that had only driven seven miles in six months."
16."Ordering off-menu. I have a friend who does this. Clearly, nice restaurants are up for this, but I would never have thought of doing this until I saw it."
17."I dated a girl from a super rich family for a couple of years and every spring, her entire family would go through their closets and donate 90% of their wardrobe, then go out and drop $20k+ on entirely new clothes for the year. They HAD to have the new season of everything. This blew my mind as someone who grew up wearing clothes until they fell apart and patching them if they still fit. Getting rid of perfectly good clothes because they were 'last season' is just unreal to me."
18."They call boutique stores ahead of time to say they are coming in on date X. The high-end boutique store pulls every super expensive item, complete with accessories, on a rolling rack to have ready. I worked in a high-end store back in the day. If it was on sale, they pulled the sale tag off and tried to get rid of all the expensive items. Think layering to upsell."
19."During COVID, I worked as a private jet charter broker. We had a guy (a British member of the House of Lords, no less) who said, 'Sod the quarantine restrictions. I need to fly to Monaco every other week to ensure I keep my tax residency in Monaco and not in the U.K.' I also had someone who I'd regularly fly between London and Baku, Azerbaijan ask if they could take a short stop off in Dubai (which is very much not on the way) to get their passports stamped to ensure they maintained their residency there. They also once showed up with well over half a ton of luggage that they described as, 'Just some stuff we picked up shopping.' You won't be surprised to hear they were very confused when we advised them that 27 boxes and suitcases wouldn't fit on an aircraft that we'd repeatedly told them only had space for about 10-12 suitcases."
"Finally, a Russian guy asked us to call his Caribbean destination island airport and ask if they could ensure that his flight was not 'randomly selected' for a COVID test, as he didn't have time to complete the quarantine if he was positive. He didn't care whether he had the virus, just that getting caught with it might screw up his travel plans…in July 2020."
20."My friend was head of housekeeping for a rich family. Before traveling, she would have to bring their clothing and suitcases to the dry cleaners, where everything was freshly pressed and folded, and tissue paper was placed between each item. Even the underwear."
21."Hiring a stylist to curate new designer furniture for their house when it needs a refresh."
"This. The idea that furniture and home decor have fashions or seasons. That you might rip out the carpeting or tile and have it redone because it isn't in style anymore. It's so beyond me that people waste perfectly good stuff, like, 'Let me throw this couch in the garbage because I'm tired of the color.'"
22."My sister-in-law's cousin's family is very rich. They have two basketball courts inside their house — that's how massive it is. They bought all the lots next to their mansion and built a park just for their family so they wouldn't need to be near anyone. I got vertigo when I walked into the 'gym.' It was so large. My brain couldn't handle that I was inside such a large space inside a house, and it couldn't understand what it was looking at. That experience is burned in my memory. I was looking for a bathroom when I stumbled upon it."
23."Tailored clothes. I'm not just talking about suits and fancier items, but tailored casual wear. Perfectly fitting t-shirts and jeans."
24.And: "Concierge/private specialized medical care. If they have a special or chronic condition, say kidney failure, they'll have a dialysis ward installed in their home with a private nephrologist, or end up hiring someone who will donate an organ to them). They can also have cancer treatments set up at home, or have an MRI installed in their home."
"This is so true and wild. My friend's dad worked in the rich people's private medical suites of a major hospital nearby. He was a very cheerful and well-liked guy. Some patients hired him privately in addition to the regular coordinators to help oversee the home setup for discharge and other things. He was paid very well. One patient built an addition to their mansion/castle to create a medical center, including a private entrance and break room for staff so they wouldn't need to come through the main house. It was like they built a mini hospital. All top-of-the-line machines/equipment etc.
They are not supposed to accept direct gifts from patients, but it was his marriage anniversary coming up and he would be taking some days off for a beach trip to celebrate. He told one of his patients this, to explain why he wouldn't be in for a few days, and they gave him the name and number of their personal jeweler for a gift for his wife. The jeweler gave him an incredible discount — like, an unbelievable discount. He has also told stories about some patients who have helped doctors or staff they like by 'making a call' to help the doctors' kids get into private schools or elite country clubs."
What are some other rich people behaviors that we "commoners" couldn't even begin to fathom? Tell us in the comments!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
